German woman, baby freed in Syria

BERLIN: A German woman who was kidnapped in Syria last year while she was pregnant has been freed along with her baby, the German foreign ministry has said.

The pair were released on Wednesday and had safely crossed the border into Turkey, a ministry spokeswoman said, declining to name the woman.

“The German national and her child who was born in captivity are doing well under the circumstances,” she said, adding that they were now safely in the care of consular officers and German police.

The German embassy in Ankara was preparing their journey home.

The German government is “relieved about the positive outcome of this case given the extraordinarily difficult situation in Syria,” the spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The ministry gave no further details.

German media have identified the woman as a freelance journalist who traveled to Syria on the promise of getting exclusive information.

Focus magazine reported earlier this year that the 27-year-old had gone missing in October 2015, apparently kidnapped by militants from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front who were demanding a five-million-euro ($5.6-million) ransom.

The weekly said she gave birth in December.

But members of the jihadist group, which is now known as Fateh al-Sham, said in a statement on Wednesday that they had nothing to do with the kidnapping and had in fact been the ones to free the woman and her baby, according to the SITE intelligence group.

The German government says it does not pay ransom demands for hostages.

The foreign ministry spokeswoman said German officials had made “considerable efforts to resolve the case.” AFP